MSI's new 'invisible cable' desktop PC goes too far

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Certainly one of my favourite developments in desktop PC design for the final couple of years has been what we name “The Conflict on Cables,” whereby all the inside energy and information cables are hidden on the bottom of a case. It makes a desktop look oh-so-clean, and that’s nice when PC builders lately are all about presentation. However at CES 2025, the most recent incarnation of MSI’s Venture Zero takes issues too far.

Spy out the brand new construct MSI is displaying off on the CES ground. Upon first look, it’s precisely what builders dream of for this sort of “disguise every thing across the again” strategy — all the higher to indicate off these gleaming white and aluminum elements with a curved glass (or polycarbonate) enclosure. However look a bit of nearer and also you may discover that issues are a bit of… off. 90 levels off, that's.

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See, this Venture Zero X motherboard has its I/O board pointed straight down, out of a recessed hole within the backside of the case. Ditto for the graphics card (customized mounted through a PCI extender cable). That signifies that all the ability, video, and information cables will have to be routed out of the underside of the case, too.

I feel this design might need been impressed by the Energy Mac G4 Dice desktop from manner again in 2000. And that factor was notorious for a number of causes, not least of which was that you just needed to join all of the cables to the underside of the machine.

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I've a number of different notes. If you happen to use a blower-style GPU with the Venture Zero X, it’s not going to be an incredible setup for the graphics card, taking pictures scorching air all the way down to that backside chamber solely to let the warmth rise throughout all these elements. (However I suppose it at the very least doesn’t require a selected suitable card, like some Asus designs.) It’s additionally an enormous case, dedicating what appears to be like like greater than half its whole quantity to further house for the hidden energy provide and house for cables, inner and exterior.

However to be truthful to MSI, this doesn’t appear to be it’s prepared for a retail launch but. The CES demonstration doesn’t even checklist out the components hiding beneath all these shrouds. So chalk this up as an experimental showpiece.

We’ll most likely see some extra refinement on the thought (perhaps at Computex later within the yr?) earlier than we see it in any kind that’s prepared for patrons. Within the meantime, you possibly can attempt one thing rather less excessive with MSI’s present Venture Zero components and circumstances.